How NASA Launched the 2012 Olympics 12 Years Ago

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The Olympics officially launch today (July 27) in London, but it
was a NASA mission from 12 years ago that first lifted off to
space with 2012 Summer Games' memorabilia.

Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on May 19, 2000, on a 10-day
mission to the International Space Station. Aboard the orbiter
were supplies for the nascent complex, which at the time
comprised just two of its eventual 12 modules.

The STS-101 mission came a few months before the start of the
2000 Summer
Olympics held in Sydney, Australia. To pay tribute to the
international nature of the Games, the shuttle's crewmates
carried a banner for the Olympics and a replica of the 2000
Sydney Torch.

Every NASA space shuttle mission carried a small pouch of
souvenirs, called the Official
Flight Kit, or OFK, packed with mementos to thank the NASA
employees and outside organizations who helped make the mission
possible.

The space agency would also sometimes use the OFK to fly items
for outreach projects and for groups supporting the local
communities around NASA centers, such as the Johnson Space Center
in Houston.

As Atlantis orbited high above the Earth, Houston was in the
running to be the U.S. Olympic Committee's bid city to host the
2012 Summer Olympics, competing against New York, San Francisco,
and Washington, D.C.-Baltimore.

(Ultimately, the U.S. committee selected the Big Apple — Houston
was eliminated in 2002 — but New York City lost out to London
when the International Olympic Committee voted in 2005.)

NASA, in support of bringing the Olympics to Houston — home of
Mission Control and the U.S. astronaut corps — launched aboard
Atlantis 1,000 lapel pins for the Houston 2012 Foundation. The
organization described its role as "to identify, package and
communicate the reasons why Houston is the best place for the
2012 Olympic Games."

The lapel pins were the shape of the space shuttle orbiter with
the foundation's stylized Texas flag torch logo at their center.
Under the red, white and blue torch was inscribed, "Houston
2012."

After Atlantis
returned to Earth, the pins, which circled the planet 155
times and traveled 4.1 million miles (7.6 million kilometers),
were returned to the Houston 2012 Foundation for distribution to
its members and supporters.

Many, if not all, of the well-traveled pins were embedded inside
acrylic with the inscription, "Flown on Space Shuttle Atlantis,
STS-101, May 2000."

Back to the future

In the dozen years that have gone by since the "Houston 2012"
pins flew in space, at least a dozen of the pins have appeared at
public auctions, where they have been sold into private Olympics
and space memorabilia collections.

A recent example of the 3.25 by 2 by 1 inch (8.3 by 5 by 2.5
centimeters) acrylic-encased pin display sold on eBay for $215
this past May.

With the London Games getting underway today, collectors have
commented how the flown pins may find renewed interest as an
unusual memento from the 2012 Summer Olympics, especially as pin
trading is an established tradition at each of the Games.